RESEARCH REVEALED JAN 2011: DEMONSTRATING HOW SPONSORSHIP & SOCIAL MEDIA WORK BETTER TOGETHER

Looking forward to seeing you all in what we're betting is going to be a positive and prosperous 2011.

Look out for our research which we'll publish mid-January. The first piece of research to explore how fans across sport, music, fashion, film, gaming and the arts use social media to access and share their passions.

We'll include some recommendations for how brands and rights holders can make the most of the insights and opportunities that are revealed.

Happy Holidays.

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SPONSORSHIP'S CHANCE TO BECOME THE MASS VALUE CHANNEL

Millions of fans are gathered in chattering communities across the social web.  They’re eager for content that adds value…and they’re happy to have it from brands. 

Is this sponsorship’s chance to become the mass value channel?

We have just completed the first ever piece of research to explore the connection between passions, fans and social media.  Results will be released in January 2011, but here’s a headline to keep you going through Christmas: 70% of people’s social media time is spent exploring their passions and sharing the best stuff with others that share their passions.  As with all the best stats, this makes perfect sense and draws a knowing nod.  Other than gossiping and tagging wedding photos, what else would they be doing?  

This is big news for our industry and the killer insight that supports why sponsorship and social media are perfect communication partners. 

Fan communities are big, connected and more actively contributing and sharing than advertising and media agencies would have you think.  Their various ‘social media ladders’ proffers that around 90% sit and watch while very few actually contribute and share.  (Active consumers are bad news for these guys.  Why won’t they just sit and watch!?).  These communities are crying out for content from brands that they can forward to their friends – but here’s the crunch - as long as it gives them something they really ‘need’ in their words, ‘value’ in ours.    

This valuable content isn’t always about entertainment – like another piece of shaky behind the scenes footage of a sponsored athlete doing something talented and ‘spontaneous’.  In fact, if you talk to the fans, or better still listen to their natural banter across blogs, groups and forums, you’ll find the value they’re after is something practical and helpful - something that gets them genuinely closer to what they love doing. This helpful content could be anything from priority ticket access to the chance to take part in an event rather than just watch it.  O2 Priority and Orange Wednesdays are two great examples.  It’s often the simplest stuff that works best.  (See ‘The New Value of Help’).

The perfect partnership of sponsorship and social media is founded in a potent combination of value and volume.  

Together sponsorship and social media offer the opportunity to give fans what they really want on a massive scale.  And if they value it, they’ll share it.  Why has social media caught on?  Because folks, it makes all of this so damn cheap and easy. 

Social media is sponsorship’s big chance to move on from being an expensive brand awareness, experiential and PR channel to the cost-effective ‘mass-value’ channel.  Too often, too few feel the value of a sponsorship.  Too often, insufficient insight leads to associations and activity that are more about ‘the story’ than building value-based bridges between brands and consumers.  Too often, sponsorship defaults to the measurement criteria of other channels - channels that are fast becoming outdated and insufficiently effective.

Now sponsorship has the chance to build it’s own value proposition.  To demonstrate that there is no better way to millions of consumer’s hearts (and pockets) than through socially sourced, shaped and shared passion platforms.

 

The concept of ‘mass value’ is quite possibly the Holy Grail for the marketing industry.  Can you think of another comms channel that leaves millions of consumers with something that enhances their lives in the long term? 

Sponsorship and social media have a very real future together. 

Embrace insight.  Give mass value.  Get involved. 

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SOCIAL MEDIA MAKES FANS INTO BIGGER FANS

Some of our research into how fans feed their passions through social media is starting to come through.  

It's interesting stuff.

As is always the case with the best stats, we're finding ourselves nodding and smiling as it all makes so much sense.

We really liked this one: 

Across fans of sport, music, fashion, film, arts and gaming an average of 60% of those questioned (501 respondents) said they were 'more engaged in their passions because of social media'.

Football fans are loving their teams more.  Live music lovers are following their bands further.  Goggle-eyed gamers are playing harder and more.  Culture vultures are going deeper. 

So folks, this reinforces how social media isn't just a new place to put stuff.  

It's a place where you will find the most direct connections to the biggest numbers of the most active fans of the passions your brands are involved with. 

We're pulling the research together now and will have it ready for you in the New Year...fresh facts and figures for 2011.

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SOCIAL MEDIA UNLOCKS THE 'FORGOTTEN FAN BASE'

Millions of consumers are already engaging in their passions through Social Media. The opportunity to unlock these huge, untapped audiences is big, real and cost-effective..

Social Media gives brands the unprecedented to opportunity to drive the reach and engagement of their Sponsorship platform across often ‘forgotten’ consumer communities.  

These audiences are not only engaging with their passions, but are sharing content and consequently, growing in scale.  Their hunger for more access, information, knowledge, experience and discussion is insatiable, and to date very few organisations are finding, feeding or even leading them.  The opportunity for brands is staggering.

Fig. 1: Five Premiership football clubs and their unofficial / untapped fan base vs. official groups engaged through common social media platforms. 

Just take a look at the audience numbers surrounding five of the Premiership’s top clubs.  The official, ‘managed’ channels account for less than 25% of the total social media audience.  The vast majority are those engaged by other ‘unofficial’ fan pages, groups, forums and blogs.  

These unofficial fans are of massive value to brands.  Indeed, many of them would argue they are the truer fan – keeping clear of managed communities, choosing instead a more pure and democratic dialogue.

Unofficial does not mean inaccessible.  Through strong insights gleaned directly from these audiences, brands can easily deliver desired content that will turn forgotten fans into potential customers.

Brands should consider whether they need to create their own branded communities when dropping branded content into existing communities may well be a more effective option.

Read our post 'Where to start with Social Media'. 

josh@robinsonpincus.com

  

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